Japheth's Run
by Ezekiel Harbinger
Summary: Japheth is running...can Uhura's mind survive?


STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES--Japheth's Run  
By Kevin Brettauer  
DISCLAIMER: Commander Uhura, Captain Kirk, and the Enterprise owned by Paramount Pictures.  
  
  
Japheth had to stop, but he couldn't. He had to keep running. If he stopped, the men would get him. They were going to take him to the land where they took his brother, the land where the white demons ruled with their fire-sticks and ridiculous clothes. If he were to stop running, who would take care of his child, the young T'Chaka Uhura...   
  
Japheth didn't want to worry about that.  
  
******  
  
Japheth was running so fast that he didn't notice the vine that he tripped over.  
  
"Aha! Got 'im!" said one of the white men, grabbing him by the arms and pinning him to the ground.  
  
"Sure is a bloody fast bugger," said another.  
  
"I once bagged me a lion this fast," the third one said.  
  
"Bollocks," said the second man.  
  
"God's honest truth," said the first one. "I was there."  
  
"You're both lousy liars!" said the third.  
  
The men were so immersed in their conversation that they didn't notice Japheth break free and pick up one of their weapons.  
  
Before he knew it, the first white man, whose name was Arnold Braga, felt the double-barrel of a shotgun at the back of his head. He shivered.  
  
"Damn nigger's got yer gun, Braga," the third man said.  
  
"Shut the fuck up!" Braga yelled back.  
  
Japheth did not speak.  
  
******  
  
Japheth threw the bodies of the white men into the river. He knew the other slave traders would not stop looking. That's why Japheth chose that particular river. It led right where the white men always came.  
  
******  
  
The large white man arrived four months later on a ship that perfectly fit his size.  
  
"Who among you have killed our men?" he asked the interpretor.  
  
Everyone in the village knew that Japheth had killed the men. Everyone stayed silent.  
  
"They do not know," the interpretor replied in the white man's language.  
  
"Who killed Arnold Braga? Who killed Stephan Piller? Which one of you bloody savages murdered Corporal Laurence Taylor?"  
  
Japheth didn't know what the man was talking about until the interpetor spoke.  
  
Japheth stepped forward. He knew they'd never stop until the found him.  
  
"I did it for my son," he said simply.  
  
After the translation, the large white man replied, "Your son? Take me to him."  
  
*****  
  
The large white man and the interpretor followed Japheth into his hut. There, Japheth's son and wife, Penda, were playing a game.   
  
"This is your family?" the large white man, Richards, asked.   
  
"Yes," Japheth said after the translation.  
  
Richards pulled out a pistol and shot Penda in the head.  
  
"You are coming with me," he said to Japheth. He pointed to a random man in the assembled crowd named Voosloo. "You," he said. "You're this boy's father now."  
  
*****  
  
"I have a son, too. I would have done the same thing in your situation. But I didn't. Which is why you have to die."  
  
Bang.  
  
*****  
  
Voosloo raised T'Chaka Uhura as his own son, but urged him to keep the family name. Little did Voosloo know the strength of Japheth's genes...  
  
*****  
  
Commander Nyota Uhura sat in her quarters, talking to her captain and confidant, James Kirk. Kirk was more than a captain to her. They were friends.  
  
"And this dream," Kirk asked. "How long have you been having it?"  
  
"Ever since we got back from the 20th century."  
  
"Could it be that you feel a closer connection to your heritage because of when we were?"  
  
"Maybe. Since when did you become an expert on psychology?"  
  
"I went to a few classes whenever Gary and I weren't raiding Cadet Gillian's panty-drawer."  
  
Uhura laughed. She shrugged the last few comments aside. "But I know that Japheth and T'Chaka and Voosloo and Richards were real. I looked them up. I don't understand why I'm having this...this horrible vision!"  
  
"The past few weeks have been rough on everyone, Nyota. Maybe you could ask for some shore leave?"  
  
"It's only been a few months since I went to Duchnan-12," she said.  
  
"Maybe in your case, they'll make an exception."  
  
"Really? Do you think so, Jim?"  
  
"Nyota, you're one of the most decorated, most valued officers in Starfleet's entire history. And I'm the captain of said 'fleet's flagship. If they don't listen to us, who WOULD they listen to?"  
  
Uhura laughed and stood up.  
  
And James Kirk and Nyota Uhura walked out of James Kirk's famous apartment in San Francisco and out into the world.  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
